Tech as a valid practice aid....

I just got myself an iPad. And I have found it to be an asset in my musical arsenal. I am by no means an Apple fanboi. Actually I'm more of an apple hater. But that is from a tech standpoint. Of locking down everything and making us depend on a sole software repository etc. but that's why we Jailbreak.

But the cold hard fact is there is a shed load of apps that are useful for us musicians. Hell we can even use the damn thing to make a record.
I don't have to carry around a binder full of songs or chord books anymore. That equals a weight saving of about a pound more or less.

Not that I'm fuzzy about weight or anything. My mountain bikes are a testament to that. But what I'm all about is streamlining my spare time. If I can simplify my practice time by acquiring a tool I will acquire said tool. And that's what my gadgets are, tools for me to enjoy my spare time. My practice has been simplified through tech. It has saved me from rifling through a library to find my chord books and song books. It's all there on my tablet. Searching for something is easier in many ways. But harder in other ways. But that to me is a fair trade off.

In fact everyone here in UU land uses tech as a practice aid one way or another. We're all members of UU. And how do we acces our fave website?

Tech to me has simplified my life and my uking time.
Although we have seen things perhaps go a bit far. Yes Futulele I'm looking at you in the corner there..

I've also participated in a thread here on electronic music. And I enjoy electronic music in most of its forms.

I've tried going "Luddite" for a while. But I am far to addicted to my tech. I can't tune up without my clip on tuner. I found my song library online. I found a community of friendly people who possess a vast knowledge of all thing uke.

Basically all I have to say as a geek and nerd.
Thank every higher power out there for my tech.
I wouldn't be helpless by any means without it. It merely simplified my life. But my my what a vast improvement we have seen in a short time.

Sorry for ranting..

This is definitely one of those "nothing is all good or all bad" areas. I started playing uke to get off of the computer - I make my living working for websites and a few years back, I found that after spending 8-10 hours a day plugged in for a paycheck, I was coming home and spending my free time doing stuff like blogging and building websites. I picked up the uke because I thought it would be the exact opposite - no electricity or wifi necessary!

While playing music has definitely made me reprioritize how I spend my off-work hours, I was pretty surprised to find out how much I rely on tech for uke-related stuff: Audacity to edit recordings, YouTube to share stuff with fellow ukers, iTunes to play along with songs, ear-training tutorials on my Android phone, etc.

In the end - if it gets you playing music, it's all good

My sentiments exactly.
If tech gets us playing more.. All good. But like you said too much can be just that that. Too much.
If my tech suddenly died tomorrow I would still be able to function as a musician. Albeit with a lot more difficulty.
I still have pitch pipes and an old wind up metronome. My chord and song books.
But it's just so much more convenient to have everything in one device. Whether it be my droid or any one of my tablets.

Now, if we could find a way (streamlined, of course) to visually enlarge what's on my 7" Nook Color screen to,
say 8x11 or larger, wow, that would really help me!

As you can see, I do have my songbooks on my rooted Nook Color (CM7) and it's serviceable, but it's that 7" screen.
The 7" form factor is very portable, but using it on a music stand... well, let's say that as a Senior Citizen I could
use some magnification please.

keep uke'in',

UncleRod. Have you upgraded your nook to the newest firmware? If so you have pinch and zoom on your PDF's.
If not. Get the upgrade..
Hope this helped you out UncleRod..

Uncle Rod Higuchi said:

As you can see, I do have my songbooks on my rooted Nook Color (CM7) and it's serviceable, but it's that 7" screen.
The 7" form factor is very portable, but using it on a music stand... well, let's say that as a Senior Citizen I could
use some magnification please.

Click to expand...

While I don't *quite* qualify as a senior, I have vision issues that make viewing music on the iPad really difficult, which is why I won't buy an iPad or e-reader right now. I know that the tech trend is always "smaller is better" but this does make me wonder if eventually the day will come where they offer them in "small" and "large." If an 8x11 iPad came out, I'd be first in line to buy it!

With regards to the iPad it has video out capabilities. Or basically you can mirror the iPad on a bigger screen.
But Apple still keeps screwing us customers with their fragging proprietary connector. Although you can still get video out through the 3.5 mm jack. Although only analog out. Or shell out some more cash to the Cupertino mafia to get their display adapter. Which has digital out.

You think you have issues seeing your ipads. I have all my uke music on my ipod touch which is even smaller than 7". It works for what I need it for which is plugging it into my Eleuke, listening to the song, reading the tab and playing along, all without bothering anyone. But being 50, I can see an ipad in my future.

Oh I have my iTouch as well..
It's been jail broken and named.. Jarvis.. And filled to the brim with tunes,tabs and apps. All sorely neglected on my desk since the arrival of my 2 droids and 2 tablets..
But I may pick it up again.. If only to install Futulele.. LMFAO..... ( really.. Not kidding here)
Why? I hear a chorus of fellow UU members ask. Because I can will be my answer..
THE GEEKS SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH...

tjomball said:

Oh I have my iTouch as well..
It's been jail broken and named.. Jarvis.. And filled to the brim with tunes,tabs and apps. All sorely neglected on my desk since the arrival of my 2 droids and 2 tablets..
But I may pick it up again.. If only to install Futulele.. LMFAO..... ( really.. Not kidding here)
Why? I hear a chorus of fellow UU members ask. Because I can will be my answer..
THE GEEKS SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH...

Click to expand...

Amen Brother :rock:

Other than GarargeBand, What music related apps are folks using?

I'm enjoying Ukulele Companion for iPad/iPhone. You move the dial to the chord name you want, and it shows it to you on the fretboard in several different positions. You can manually strum to hear it. You choose the chord root, then You choose among 22 chordal qualities - there's even dominant 13th. It also has scales and modes.

GarageBand, IK Multimedia Groovemaker(sequencer), IK Multimedia Sampletank(synth,sampler)
Camel Audio Alchemy(soft synth), Tonepad(tenori on clone),
Peavey amp kit, N-track tuner, and the mandatory metronome and chord finders/library apps.
I will try more apps but for the moment this is more than enough for me.

I use Chords4Ukes and UkuleleTabs

I use SongBook for storing my songs. Love it.

I have StudioTrack for recoding multiple tracks, but the EQ is extremely fiddly and difficult to dial in. And for some reason the final mix distorts when played through the type of speakers people usually use. I master it with Audio Technica monitors, but the final result played through laptop speaks is unplayably bad.

For some reason, Garage Band, with all its inexplicable problems (like having to select a song length first, and not being able to export a song from mac to iOS without some hacking of the file first), produces better results.

On the PC side of things I have a few programs. Steinberg Wavelab 7, Ableton Live 8, NI Komplete, Samplitude Magix 11, Energy XT and various other soft synths, virtual instruments and plugins.
Ableton is my go to DAW these days.
But Wavelab is quite simple to grasp.. The same goes for Energy XT. As an added bonus Energy XT is cross platform compatible. And dirt cheap to purchase.